Stats coming in from last year show that 68% of cyber security breaches involved a non-malicious human element. What this means is the biggest culprit in causing cyber-attacks lurks within our own organisations… it’s our team members!
Ok, it’s a bit harsh to blame it on the team members themselves. They may have fallen victim to a very sneaky phishing email. Or maybe a social engineering scam lured them into giving out details they shouldn’t have. Whichever way it goes down – through a mistake or negligence or just plain lack of knowledge – these incidents are almost certainly preventable.
This is why cyber security awareness training has become so important in recent years. Your team members won’t naturally have the knowledge and tools to protect themselves and your business from breaches. They need both education and support.
With the average cost of cybercrime increasing by 14% year-on-year, the onus is on business owners to ensure their team is up to speed with their cyber security awareness. Today we’re going to take a closer look at how to do this, and the advantages it brings.
What is Cyber Security Awareness Training?
This is training that helps mitigate the risk of a human error causing cyber breaches. It helps your staff understand their role in protecting themselves and your organisation while teaching them how to identify cyber-attacks and security risks while improving their cyber hygiene. It’s an educational process that equips them with the tools to identify and understand the threats they may encounter.
Here’s the thing – this isn’t a ‘one and done’ process. The cyber landscape evolves on a daily basis, and the threats hackers pose change with it. Ongoing training is essential to keep ahead of the latest dangers.
Topics you are likely to encounter in cyber security awareness training include:
- How to recognise phishing attempts.
- The importance of having a strong password.
- How to identify malware and ransomware.
- Why it’s important to adhere to company security policies.
- The regulatory aspects of data protection.
- How to recognise and prevent social engineering.
Advantages of Being a Cyber Aware Organisation
Cyber security awareness training brings with some direct and indirect benefits. Let’s look at some of the main ones:
Prevent Data Breaches
This is ‘numero uno’ because it’s the most obvious reason as to why an organisation would opt for this training. Your return on investment is that you don’t get hacked… or have a far lower chance of getting hacked! Your staff will be trained to spot risks and know the steps to take to mitigate a cyberattack happening, and your organisation will be a much more challenging target for cybercriminals.
Building a Security Culture
As we mentioned above, cyber security is an ongoing process. You can’t just set it and forget it – it requires reviews, updates and continuous effort. Awareness training helps ingrain a security mindset into your organisation, giving employees the tools and tactics to strengthen your defences. Building an office culture in which cyber security plays a significant part encourages vigilance and accountability amongst your team.
Compliance Requirements
Depending on what industry you’re in, there will be different rules and regulations relating to data security and privacy. You want to stay on the right side of them to avoid any legal trouble or risk copping a fine. Awareness training will help your employees understand what those rules are and how to keep sticking to them on a daily basis and maintain compliance.
Protect Your Customers and Reputation
If you’re providing employee training on cyber security awareness, your customers will see you as more responsible. This encourages trust, which encourages loyalty. Today’s consumers are very aware of cyber security and the harm a breach can do. If they get wind of the fact that you’re slacking on that front, or if you actually suffer a cyber incident that compromises their data, consumers will be turned away in droves.
Improved Employee Wellbeing
You’re not just doing this to protect your business, you’re doing it for your employees too. Security awareness training keeps them safe while on the job, but the skills they learn also filter through to their personal lives. Threats aren’t confined to the workplace, so you’re helping equip them with the necessary tools to stay safe wherever they are.
Phished.io – Holistic Cyber Security Awareness
We want to introduce you to a cyber awareness training program that we implement here at Smile IT called Phished.io. A number of our clients have implemented this program and speak very highly of how the training seamlessly integrates into day-to-day office life to help get your employees cyber aware.
Phished delivers advanced phishing simulations that effectively change your employee behaviour, making the spotting of real-life threats second nature. Training sessions are divided into easily absorbed and practical micro-learnings, with regular checkpoints to keep everybody up to speed. In addition, Phished provides real time threat alerts to alert your team to any new threats.
If you’re looking for a platform that offers holistic training that truly focuses on cyber resilience, Phished could be just the ticket for you. The Smile IT team would love to answer any questions on it, so get in touch. As part of our ISO 27001 program, we’ve been using it internally for an extended period now, and have experienced definite improvements in the cyber security culture we’re building at Smile IT.
When he’s not writing tech articles or turning IT startups into established and consistent managed service providers, Peter Drummond can be found kitesurfing on the Gold Coast or hanging out with his family!